Mother and Son
by Smokey-eyed-Beauty
Summary: Married to a man she does not love and raising a son born outside their union, Cagalli is learning to cope with life, no matter how brutal it is.
1. Prologue

**Ok, before you read any further be warned that you will most likley NOT like the ending. I know that a million or so people out there will want kill me once they do. Ah! What I say, I have a thing for controversy, besides, I like this fic.**

**Anyways...Disclaimer:If I owned Gundam SEED/Destiny, they wouldn't have overdosed on pot while comming up with the plot line for Destiny (come on, we all know that's what happened...)**

**LAST WARNING TO ALL DIE-HARD ASUCAGA FLUFF FANS: _STAY AWAY!_**

* * *

"Mom, it's time to go." 

Cagalli looked up at the speaker, her son, Lionel, a boy of 17.

"What time is it?" she asked blandly.

Lionel rolled his golden eyes and looked at his watch.

"Twenty-two hundred hours and a half!" he exclaimed with a mock salute.

Cagalli laughed. Her big blonde boy would always come and pick her up after a long (emphasis on long) day of work as Orb's head representative. She would always stall him before finally letting him drive her home. This was there one moment together during the day (or night) after all. Their only quality time together.

"That early private?" she questioned, following his lead, "well then, I say we hang around here a little longer. No objections I presume?"

"None at all, Captain!"

Cagalli shook her head and sighed, "if you want to be formal, it's Mother, not Captain. Murrue's the only captain I know." Lionel shrugged. "Sit down already!" ordered his mother.

He did so without a second thought.

They talked pleasantly for a while, covering every subject they could. From Lionel's newest crush to the current state of Orb politics, and everything else in between.

The girl Lionel liked was a certain Mayu Asuka-Hawke and there was no way Cagalli was going to let her son live it down. She had even threatened to call Shinn and tell him all about it. The blonde boy quickly and tactfully changed the subject to politics. It seemed that Cagalli had gotten into a fight with one of the PLANT politicians over the phone, or she was just mad at him. Either way the December City representative received a good yell at from his mother. And, as always, she was exceedingly proud.

She was also very conversational that night.

Lionel had asked her the same question he asked every night. The one he called the unanswerable question.

And she answered it.

"Mom, when did you first meet Father?" he had asked.

"It happened a long time ago," she'd begun nostalgically, much to her son's astonishment, " during the first war. My skygrasper had been shot down…"

Cagalli lost herself in telling the story. She was no longer in her office, but on an uninhabited island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. It was as if she was sixteen and hormonal all over again.

Lionel hung on her every word like a child being told a bedtime story. The passion she used to explain it all drew him in. He could almost smell the island's scent and feel the scorch of the fire. It was as if he was right there with her.

"…he went back to ZAFT and I thought I'd never see him again," finished Cagalli with an ending that sounded much too much like a beginning.

It took Lionel a moment to process the information.

But then…

It hit him.

"What the fuck was Father doing in ZAFT?" he demanded, confused and panicked. It was a well-known fact that the Orb representative's husband had a thing against coordinators and there was no way he'd collaborate with them –let alone fight for them. What if his mother was becoming delusional? As much as he hated to admit it, Cagalli always did seem to be bordering insanity. And if his father ever found out…

Cagalli stared at her son in shock.

"Oh shit," she cursed, "you were talking about Yuuna, weren't you?"

* * *

**P.S: if I get enough feedback and no writers block, i just might continue this fic, but that all depened on you guys, doesn't it?**


	2. One

**The response I've gotten for this is not exactly what I expected, half of you found the whole thing hilarious and the other half all want to kill me for what I've done. At least you don't all want to kill me, anyways here goes chapter 2!**

**Disclaimer: I don't do pot, I don't own Gundam SEED

* * *

"Oh good, you're still here!" exclaimed the ravishing Mayu Asuka-Hawke as she spotted Lionel. She ran to sit down beside him on the school steps. For a second his heart soared, "I thought I was going to have to wait here all by myself." She smiled and the blonde boy's heart came crashing back down to earth. "My aunt's coming to pick me up, so we can go shopping for mom's birthday present," she explained. "But she's late and all my friends are gone and I don't want to wait here alone," she added with a cute pout, "what are you doing here, Attha?"**

Lionel groaned inwardly, from what his mother had told him Mayu had most definitely picked that trait up from her father.

"Well?" asked Mayu, her brilliant violet eyes narrowing. The young man loved those eyes. They were so beautiful, so intense, so – "Attha, are you in there?" snapped the girl sitting next to him.

"Uh, yeah, sorry," he stumbled over his words, "what were we talking about?"

Mayu rolled her eyes. Lionel could swear he saw steam coming out of his ears. "I asked you what you're still doing here?"

"Oh, I'm waiting for Kira, my uncle. We always hang out together Friday nights," he said a little too quickly.

Mayu nodded uncertainly, not too keen about asking him to repeat what he had just said in English. Instead, she tried to bring up another subject, and another and another. "Ugh! What is with you?" she demanded, "why are you spaced out all that time? You've been like this all week!"

For the first time since he'd seen her, Lionel answered Mayu clearly and without hesitation, "I don't want to talk about it," he snapped, scaring the girl.

He couldn't help it. For the first seventeen years of his life, his father had been Yuuna Roma Serian. Now he was some random ZAFT soldier. It was so ironic. When he was little, he used to wish he had a different father. And suddenly, with just 8 little words his wish came true. And he hated it.

"Sorry," he mumbled to Mayu, "my mother and I we had a…misunderstanding."

Misunderstanding indeed. What Lionel had wanted to know when he asked the unanswerable question was how his mother could fall in love with the likes of Yuuna Roma Serian and NOT how Cagalli ended up having sex with another man after she had already tied the knot. With just 8 little words, she had turned his world upside down.

Lionel despised her for doing so.

Ever since that night, Lionel hadn't once talked to his mother, no matter how much she tried to start a conversation. He had even stopped picking her up. Instead, he'd stay awake at night, waiting for her to arrive, sometime in the early hours of the mourning. He'd never let her see him though. She'd come in around 1 or 2 A.M. with bags under her eyes, looking miserable. Kisaka, who still looked after her despite his retirement, escorted her every time. The old man always seemed to know exactly where Lionel was hiding and would always cast him a reproachful glance before leaving. _See what you're doing to your mother? _It seemed to say accusingly, _how could you do this to her? _After a short-lived guilt trip, the young Attha would shrug off the feeling by telling himself that Kisaka knew nothing of what he was going through.

People instinctively took the woman's side in matters like these. They never even bothered to ask the man for his side of the story. The female was always the victim and the male the heartless killer. And then women went on to complain about how they were being deprived of their rights!

How does the saying go?

Life's a bitch, then you die.

Suddenly, Lionel was pulled out of his daze by an unknown force. –Correction, he was pulled out of his daze by Mayu's delicate hand. She had grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her. Their faces were only inches apart.

"It's ok to talk about it you know," she told him, "if you keep all your emotions to yourself, they'll come a day when you won't be able to take it any longer and then they'll be no telling what you'll do."

She stared at him intently, her violet eyes pouring into his amber ones as trying to read them. They were so close. Lionel could hear his heart pounding. All of a sudden, he wanted to tell her everything. And then he wanted to kiss her and then…

"Mayu, I'm sorry I'm so late!" called a voice. The two teens broke apart as fast as they could.

"It's alright," replied the young girl shakily, "I'm fine Aunt Meyrin."

The two hugged and Meyrin examined her niece to make sure that she was really fine. That's when she spotted Lionel.

"And who might this fine young man be?" she asked jokingly.

Mayu blushed a little, "oh, that's just Attha," she mumbled.

The older woman was suddenly quiet, as she looked Lionel over. She shook her head, "Mayu, don't you pick up your father's bad habit!" she scolded after a rather awkward moment.

"I'd say it's too late to try stopping that," said a masculine voice from behind her. "It's been a while, Miss Meyrin."

Kira Yamato smiled at her warmly.

"Mr. Kira!" she exclaimed in a pleasant shock, "why yes, it had been a rather long time," she added as her cheeks turned a slight shade of pink. "And what are you doing here?"

"Picking up my darling nephew," replied Kira, making Lionel scowl. He and Meyrin continued to make small chat completely ignoring their sibling's children. Eventually they decided that they 'really should get going' and both pairs (Kira and Lionel/ Meyrin and Mayu) went their separate ways.

"How do you know all these people, Kira," Lionel had later asked.

"When you've lived like I have, you come to know a lot people," he replied with a crooked smile.

* * *

Cagalli stared at the picture that she always hid in the deepest, darkest corner of her bottom draw. It was old and falling apart –she had never bothered to have it framed. On it, there were three people: a younger version of herself, a baby version of her son and Athrun. Miriallia had taken the picture, obviously. The blonde woman sighed sadly as she thought about the distance that had grown between them. They were posed to look like a family, Cagalli holding Lionel and Athrun holding her. If only things had turned out that way…

_It the night before the wedding. Cagalli sat motionless on the stiff bed in one of the Serian Mansion's many guestrooms, trying her best not to cry. Tomorrow was her wedding day, it was supposed to be the happiest day of her life. So why wasn't she happy? _

_Why was she even asking herself that question? She already knew the answer. She was marrying Yuuna for crying out load! She was throwing her life away! And even worse than that, she was going along with._

"_I need to talk to somebody," she told herself._

_Quietly, she made her way across the room to the small cupboard where she had hidden her cell. Taking a glance at the room to make certain that she was really alone, Cagalli dialed Kira and Lacus' number._

_The phone rang once, twice, three times, four, five, six, seven, eight…_

_The Princess of Orb cursed, what exactly did Kira have against voice mail?_

…_Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen._

_Cagalli snapped the phone shut and punched the wall. The pain in her hand rapidly spread throughout her whole body. She fell to her knees and cried._

_They were having a party. It was a small intimate thing, celebrating the end of the war. Cagalli had made sure not to let Yuuna know anything about it. To him, she was still at work (Kisaka was on the job –no pun intended). They were at Kira's apartment, uh, penthouse. He had just finished moving that day, so it also ended up being a housewarming party for him. All the furniture was very modern and very different from what had been in his and Lacus' old house. The walls were covered in framed pictures; a lot of them were taken during that period between both wars. Cagalli tried her best to ignore them._

_She looked at around the room. Everyone seemed so happy. Lacus chatted amiably with Miriallia and Murrue, Andy and Mwu were arm wrestling, Shinn and his girlfriend, Luna-something were very close to making out. Kira was playing host with Yzak, Shiho and Dearka –who kept sneaking peaks at a certain brunette, and Athrun and his redhead, Meyrin seemed captivated in a passionate conversation. Cagalli smiled in spite of it all. Peace had been restored and everyone was happy. She felt as if she had done her job. _

_She turned to look at Lacus' clique and found that Meyrin had joined them. Panicking a little, Cagalli scanned the room for Athrun, hoping he had gone off to talk with Kira or bother Shinn. She didn't mind really, she didn't care where he was as long as she didn't have to face him, or talk to him, or interact with him at all._

"_Hey there Mrs. Serian," _

_Cagalli froze, she had been afraid of this._

"_Don't call me that!" she exclaimed, her fist flying towards the speaker, only to be caught by the one and only Athrun Zala. After carefully putting her hand down, he gave her a forced smile._

"_So, how've you been, Mrs. Serian?" he asked bitterly._

_The young woman glared at him, "my name is Cagalli!" she snapped._

"_Yeah, I know, you told be that," replied Athrun, lightening up a bit, "so, how've you been Cagalli?" he asked, putting a certain emphasis on the last word._

_The blonde girl giggled anything to avoid answering the question._

"_So?" pressed Athrun. The princess of Orb bit her lip._

"_I don't want to talk about it!" she blurted out, trying as best as she could to get away._

_Athrun grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to stay, "Cagalli please, I want to know." They locked eyes, and conversed through them until guilt forced the young woman to look away. She wasn't the only one who had suffered. "A wise person once told me," began Athrun, "that I should talk about my feelings, and not keep everything bottled up._

_Cagalli was forced to give up, flattery got you everywhere with her. "I've…I've been lonely," she said quietly, almost in a whisper, "you guys all went off and fought in the war while I had to stay here and wait. I was so afraid that one of you guys might not come back. I had nobody to turn to. I couldn't even tell my husband, the person you're supposed to share everything with."_

_She was crying into his shirt now. Athrun held her patiently, stroking her back, doing what he could to console her. _

_The next thing Cagalli knew, she was spending her mornings throwing and stressing about her newly discovered pregnancy. _

_It had been more than a year since the party. Things had changed dramatically for Cagalli. She was a mother know, it was amazing what that did to a person. To think hardly 7 months earlier she had been worried about hiding the fact that the child wasn't Yuuna's. It felt so good to be wanted. Her son, Lionel Uzumi Attha (Serian) was barely three months old and already knew she was his mother and did not hide it in the least. He adored her and she loved him back. The loneliness Cagalli had once felt was gone, and if it weren't for Yuuna, her life would've been perfect._

_It was Cagalli's day off. She sat in the nursery, watching over her son. The doorbell rang. Her heart started pounding. She looked to Lionel, "time to meet Daddy," she told him. He gurgled at her._

_She opened the door and in came Athrun Zala, the father of her child. They politely exchanged kisses **a la francaise **and began to talk. Cagalli introduced him to Lionel and he was immediately taken. It made her smile, at least his real father could appreciate him. They had a casual lunch with Miriallia at a nearby café, took a couple of pictures, made faces and silly noises to entertain Lionel, and then brought him back to the mansion._

_Lionel was napping. Both adults sat in the living room, waiting for one of them to crack. Athrun eventually did._

"_So you're just planning on lying to him for the rest of his life?" he demanded._

_Cagalli bit her lip and nodded shamefully, "it's for the best," she mumbled._

"_For the best? FOR THE BEST? Cagalli are you out of your mind? I don't want my son growing with THAT man for a father!" Athrun was out his chair now, and waving his arms like crazy, his green eyes flaring._

"_Look Zala," barked Cagalli defensively, "I don't want it either, but I'd rather that then having my son growing up in a broken family!" She was standing too, but her arms stayed by her side, her hands forming into fists._

"_This about stability! This is about your reputation!" retorted the blue-haired man._

_BANG!_

_Athrun wobbled back into his seat, holding his gut. _

"_Don't you dare say that, Athrun Zala!" cried Cagalli, "you have no idea what it is to be a mother!"_

_The young man stared at her in shock._

"_GET OUT!" she cried, turning her back to him and stomping over to the nursery, where Lionel lay howling, having been woken up by all the commotion. Athrun left without saying goodbye._

Cagalli returned the picture to it's hiding place with a sigh. Over time, they forgave each other, but it was still a painful memory. At that time, she had thought that Lionel would never find out, that she would be able to keep the secret forever. She was such an idiot.

* * *

Kira Yamato was Lionel's idol. He was strong, brave, suave, cool but also kind. The young man had grown up listening to his mother telling him stories of her 'little' brother's exploits. From a very young age he had been entranced with him and did everything he could to be like him. He had even copied his haircut.

Friday nights were their time together, they would go over to his penthouse and hang out for a couple of hours. Then at around 10 or 11p.m. they would go pick up Cagalli and Kira would drive them both home. He always took the long way, and the three of them would act stupid in the car. Lionel always looked forward to that moment of the week. Not today though, Kira had to put up a fight with him to get him into the car.

"Why are you acting so strange?" he asked his nephew once the car was rolling.

A pregnant pause

"It's a long story," mumbled Lionel, trying to avoid the subject.

"I've got time," said Kira calmly.

An awkward silence

"What…what do you know about my father?" stuttered the blonde boy. Kira gave him the funny eye. "My…my real one," he added.

"Oh," said the older man flatly, focussing on the road. "He was a friend of mine, he and your mother, met during the first war."

"I know that," retorted Lionel, "they met on an island, right?" Kira raised an eyebrow but let his nephew continue. "So…so did her just fuck her and leave?"

The brunette man shook his head, "no, Cagalli's the one who made him go."

"What?"

"She was already married, she thought it was best."

The blonde boy shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Ok, and he just left after that, right?"

Kira almost smiled, "no, he was always there, you just didn't see him." Lionel gave him a quizzical look. "He'd come to your school concerts or violin recitals as often as he could. When you got presents from Santa at Christmas, they were really from him," he explained.

The car stopped.

"I don't want to go in," snapped the younger boy as Kira undid his seatbelt. His uncle sighed, but decided not to fight him.

"Fine, wait here," he ordered.

When he came back with his sister a few minutes later, there was no one in the passenger seat where Lionel had been. The blonde boy was anywhere to be seen. Cagalli called out to him but there was no response: he had disappeared.

* * *

**That's all for now folks, I gotta go do math homework. Anyways, review! (and happy belated Thanksgiving to all you Canadians out there, Eh!)**


	3. Two

**I'm (finally) back! Sorry for the long update, but school has been freakishly hectic and I've hardly enough time to think. Then there's the fact that when I started writing, I was doing something totally different, that I eventually came to hate. Anyways,this chapter isn't quite done by my standards, but I'm uploading it anyways, 'cause I won't have any time to work on it this weekend. I hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: You know what this is for, I know what this is for, we all know that I don't own gundam seed anymore than you do, so starting next chapter, don't try to look for this!**

* * *

Lionel was a good runner, always had been. Countless track and field medals were displayed in all over the house for everyone to see. He spent almost all his free time at the track, practicing, getting better and better. Lionel had always considered it liberating. It was only now, as he ran wildly through the streets of Onogoro, with no fear of the approaching storm did he realize what a lie that was. Track courses and medals weren't freedom, this was.

* * *

The number of times Cagalli had slept over at her brother's penthouse at over the years was growing too large to keep count of anymore. It was almost becoming a habit. Almost. After all, this was not and never had been a casual thing. They only did this on important occasions, like the time she had found out she was pregnant with Lionel or the night after her confrontation with Athrun.

"You going to be alright, Cagalli?" asked Kira, bringing her a mug full of warm milk with peppermint –her favorite. They were both in his guestroom, her home away from home. She mumbled shy thanks and nodded slightly. She tried to smile.

"Well, it's not like I'm that surprised," she said with a hint of sarcasm, "he's my kid after all." She took a sip of her beverage, "I honestly thought he'd run off sooner than he did. I mean, I was only 12 when I ran away for the first time," she added nostalgically.

Kira smiled politely and nodded. He wasn't that shocked at this turn of events either. Lionel had been on edge for a while now, with his 18th birthday drawing ever nearer. _His manhood is coming, _Cagalli would constantly say, though her brother saw differently. In his eyes, his nephew was already an adult. _He need's his freedom_, Kira told himself, finding it a bit ironic that he had only just realized that. "I think this is going to be good for him," he finally told his sister, feeling much more confident than he actually was.

The blonde woman shook her head, "Kisaka told me they always had to tell Father that one too," she laughed bitterly. Then, abruptly, her tone changed, "and I know that what you're saying is probably true, Kira," she began quietly, "but I'm still scared that something might happen, or that he might not come back," her voice was shaky. The supposedly younger twin (Cagalli was still convinced) sighed. Cagalli was very protective of Lionel, a bit too much for both of their sakes.

"…Or that he might not want to come back," finished Cagalli, sinking down onto the guestroom bed. Perhaps it was selfish, but to her, that last thought was the scariest possibility of them all.

* * *

The blonde boy had read somewhere that if you paid no attention to the destination and concentrated only on the journey, you would get to where you needed to be. When he finally stopped running, Lionel found himself in front of Onogoro's most infamous nightclub. The one Yuuna had often tried to close down as well as the one Cagalli had stubbornly insisted stay open. He figured it was some sort of sign.

The club, Vagabond's Den, was notorious for its easy accessibility (they demanded no Ids), shady guests and vicious parties. _Where the music is load and the woman scream loader,_ they said. Taking a deep breath, unsure of what he was about to do, he walked up to the door, and ever so gently forced it open.

The next thing he knew, Lionel was being pushed from one throng of people to another. The music was deafening and the underage kid could only guess if the second part of the saying was quite as true. After a while, he made it to the other side of the place and decided to stay there for a little while. The noise level wasn't quite as load here, which was a nice break. He stood slouching against the wall, watching some half-naked girl dance seductively. This was all _very_ new to him, though it wasn't as if he was complaining. He was actually loving every second of it.

"Kid," said a sudden, scruffy voice from behind him, "you're not supposed to be here." A hand fell on his shoulder. Lionel tried to break free aggressively.

"What do you know?" he demanded.

The figure took a step closer to him and revealed its self to be a man, though that didn't really surprise Lionel. A woman would've made more of a scene. The man smirked, "I know enough about you to render you speechless," he replied.

Now this was creepy. Fearing a rabid stoker, the young man bolted for the crowds, and eventually the door. Back inside, the older man chuckled.

"At least I got him out of here," he muttered.

* * *

The house wasn't too small or too big, but just the right size. It sat tucked away in the countryside, a twenty-minute drive from the outskirts of Onogoro. The place was practically a farm it was _that_ secluded.

Shinn still had no idea why he had come back to Orb. Whenever people asked, he would always mumble something about Luna wanting to be closer to Meyrin or that he thought he should be close to Attha to stop her from doing anything stupid. It depended on the person really. Shinn was pretty sure his wife had the answer to it all in her head, but she knew better than to give him a psychiatric portrait of himself. But for Shinn, the reason he had come back was still a mystery.

He still hated everything about the damned country. He would always make sure to be in a foul mood whenever he had to go to Onogoro. Whenever Attha was, well there, in any way possible (newspaper, speculation, television or in person) he never forgot to put in a bad word for her.

Despite all that, Shinn had matured enough to admit that he was happy. Even if he was living in Orb.

That didn't mean he had no pride left though.

"What do you mean my daughter was flirting with Attha's bastard?"

Ah, Shinn! He was such an overprotective father.

"Don't say that!" stammered both Lunamaria and Meyrin at the same time.

The male rolled his eyes and groaned.

"Give it up you two," he barked. "It's time to stop living in fantasy land, we all know he's Athrun's kid."

Silence descended upon the room. Meyrin bit her lip. She and Athrun had broken up a long time ago, when he had decided to go into politics, but it was her first break-up and hard to revisit.

"Who's Athrun?" asked Mayu suddenly. The three adults jumped, she hadn't been in the kitchen with them a minute ago. Noticing their inquisitive looks she explained: "I went to get a glass of water and I heard Dad screaming," said the brunette girl with a shrug, "so I came to see what was going on. Who's Athrun?" she asked again.

Boy she was persistent, just like her mother.

"He's nobody!" squeaked her aunt quickly, only to be contradicted by her mother.

"Stop that Mey," she snapped, "Athrun's not nobody, Mayu's old enough to know." Luna turned to her daughter, her magenta hair moving along with her ever-turning head. "It's a bit of a long story, why don't you sit down, sweetie," she said, pointing to a chair and ignoring her husband's eye rolling.

"Athrun Zala is an old friend of ours," she began, ignoring Shinn's antics, "who we all met during the second war, when we were on the Minerva. He…"

"He fucked Attha and got her pregnant," cut in Mayu's father, not interested in listening to Luna's sunny-side-up story about Athrun, or Meyrin's over-easy one either. "That's what you wanted to know, right?" he asked his daughter, who nodded hesitantly. He shot his wife and sister-in-law a boastful victory glance and smirked.

"So, he's Attha's real Dad?" questioned Mayu, as if trying to place the pieces of a puzzle together.

"Yes," said Meyrin eventually.

"Oh," was all the young girl could say.

* * *

"Why are you following me?" Lionel demanded of the obviously older man –the same one who had been bugging him in the club earlier. He shrugged, a smile cracking on his wrinkly face.

"You could say it's my duty," he let out cheerfully. "Your mom would probably kill me if I caught you in a place like that and let you go." The two of them were walking through the streets of Onogoro without much purpose. "I'm already on her black list," he added. The blonde boy raised an eyebrow.

"What did you do, discourage feminists?" he asked sarcastically.

The older man laughed heatedly.

"No, I know better than that," he replied with a grin. "Of course, I didn't then," he added nostalgically. Lionel gave him a quizzical look.

"Just who are you?" he asked, realizing that he sounded extremely daft and slow. He couldn't help it though, there was just something about this guy…

"Andrew Waltfeld," replied the man, interrupting Lionel's thoughts, "but you probably know me as the 'the-guy-who-forced-me-into-a-dress'."

* * *

Cagalli walked into her office the next morning with bags under her eyes. Her expression was unreadable and she was not in the mood for any funny business. She had hardly slept the night before and was extremely cranky. It didn't help that she was worried as hell about her son. Sighing angrily, she opened her office door.

"It's nice to finally see you Cagalli," said Yuuna reproachfully as she walked in. He was sitting in _her _chair his large elbows symmetrically perched on _her_ desk, his chin resting on his knuckles. Quietly, Cagalli closed the door, blocking off the rest of the world from their qualms. She watched her husband's eyes narrow. "Where were you last night?" he barked. The blonde woman rolled her eyes.

"Kira's," she replied curtly, "I spend the night there from time to time, you know that."

Yuuna shook his head slightly. He had grown fatter since their marriage, and bald. Whatever physical charm he might have had when they were engaged was gone and never coming back. The head representative of Orb was still unsure weather to grieve the loss or not.

"And where is my heir?" demanded he husband. That was what he always called Lionel, his heir. It disturbed his wife. He liked to watch her squirm. Trying to ignore it, Cagalli shook her head, flinching.

"It's a funny story…" she began, shrugging, trying to keep her cool. "You remember when we were young and I used to run away all the time?" she continued, as if talking to girlfriends about meeting an old acquaintance in the street, "well it turns out our soon takes after me." She sounded somewhat distant as she finished. The room became quiet.

"Are you telling me what I think you're telling me?" asked Yuuna finally, in that tone of voice that suggested his wife was playing with fire.

"That Lionel ran off on us for the very first time?" she asked sarcastically, "yeah pretty much." Whoever the woman talking was, it wasn't Cagalli. Cagalli was hiding somewhere in the back of her mind just waiting for it all to be over. She was always like this with Yuuna, hiding and unwilling to show her emotions.

Furiously, he got up from her desk and came to her, knocking a few picture frames off her desk as he did so. Cagalli couldn't help but think the he looked like an angry ape at that moment.

"How could you let this happen?" he demanded, grabbing a hold of her shoulders and shaking them violently. "Why did you let him get away?" he demanded, as if Lionel were his hostage. Letting out his signature frustrated-girly-scream, he pushed Cagalli away and left the office. "I'm going to file a missing person's report!" he huffed.

His wife paid no attention. She and Kira had already made certain that Yuuna would be unable to do so. Sure it was hard, but deep down Cagalli knew Lionel had to do this. She was a mother after all.

* * *

**I know it's short, review please!**


	4. Three

**I know what you guys are thinking, something along the lines of Finally! Am I wrong? Anyways, sorry fro the delay. I hope you guys like this chap, it's a bit weird. Oh, and a warning to Kira/Lacus fans, you might want to stay away...

* * *

**

For exactly eighteen years, two months and 23 days now, Yuuna Roma Serian and Cagalli Yula Attha had been Orb's perfect couple. And for seventeen years, ten months and 5 days, Yuuna Roma Serian, Cagalli Yula Attha and Lionel Uzumi Attha had been Orb's perfect family.

At least, that was what the press reported. And what the press reported, its readers believed...

Sometimes he couldn't believe he had stooped so low that he had to read gossip columns so he could keep an eye on them. Orb's so-called perfect family, that is. He hid the magazines he collected under his basement floorboards and was the only one who knew of their existence. The man had once heard a respected politician say that there were times when the last resort was the only resort. Of course, that person had been true to their title and never bothered to mention that the last resort was oftentimes the most soul crushing one out there.

Those who were close to them knew the truth, while the average citizens blindly believed what was published in the press. As for Athrun, he was caught somewhere in the middle. He knew Cagalli well, even now, so many years later, and he was almost certain that her feelings towards Yuuna hadn't changed. He wasn't quite so sure about Lionel though. Yet, on the other hand, after spending more than 15 years reading the daily gossip, he couldn't help but think that what they claimed was true.

* * *

As Cagalli picked up the pictures Yuuna had knocked down she came upon one that she had forgotten about. That was what happened when you crammed your tiny desk with picture after picture. It was an old one, the blonde woman guessed that it had probably been sitting there longer than the rest of them. There were two people in the photo, her and Athrun. 

It was from those two golden after the first war. From a time when they believed they were invincible.

They were so stupid to have believed that.

Back then, nothing went wrong. If something was ever bothering them, it could be easily fixed with a kiss and a few sweet words. They were so happy together as boyfriend and girlfriend. Their future looked so bright, so stupidly bright. They were going to stay together forever and maybe get married, but not until after Cagalli turned 30. Nothing could get between then. Not politics, not Athrun's being a Zala and definitely not that purple haired freak.

It was depressing how optimistic they had been.

Snapping out of her daze, Cagalli placed the picture back on to the table and began to go through her paperwork. This was her life now, but she still hadn't learned to live with it.

* * *

Yuuna despised his wife and adored Cagalli. He hated the representative with a passion but loved the princess like no other. And he desperately wished that they weren't the same person.

Yuuna had first met Cagalli when he was only 6 years old; she had only been two. At the time they were both too young to understand what an engagement was, or how it connected the two of them. The little blonde girl was stubborn and passionate, even then. He fondly remembered her bursting out in tears after tripping over her dress, and then smiling from ear to ear a minute later. The man chuckled. Very few people knew it, but Cagalli had been a real crybaby when she was young. And he had been the one to dry her tears. Not Kisaka, not her father, not that stupid coordinator brother of hers and definitely not Alex Dino, but him, Yuuna Roma Serian.

The princess used to be so emotional in front of him. She'd let him know everything and was unable to hide a single feeling. They had gotten along quite well in childhood, they were the best of friends, but as they began growing up things changed. Cagalli became less and less of a crybaby. When she did cry, she was always too ashamed to tell him why. She began spending more time with her father and grew more opinionated. She wanted to do everything for herself and no one was aloud to help. Dresses became the enemy, boys became jerks, freedom became her dream and the sweet little Princess Yuuna loved became history.

Now you mustn't go imagining to yourself that Yuuna cared any less for the new Cagalli, the tomboy one. He had also grown up and developed his own tastes and morals –ones that were radically different from his fiancée's. He liked women, money and power, they were all things that made him feel good. Nobody knew it, but he was terribly insecure. Of course, nobody ever tried to find out either. His father had always been too busy with work and his mother too preoccupied with her numerous tea parties. The gang of boys he hung out with at school only did so because of his money and status. Even Lord Uzumi, the man he looked up to the most as a child, openly disapproved of him. As for Cagalli, she was too busy running away from home all the time to notice.

In his teens, the one thing Yuuna wanted more than anything else was control and he saw only one way to get it: Cagalli. He tried to stop her from leaving and he tried to talk her into wearing dresses. Whatever he could do to have a certain amount of power of her. The few times he succeeded, the growing man had always felt so confident, so proud, so excited. All his worries would disappear and he was the master of the universe for however long it lasted.

As he moved on into adulthood, his need for control diminished but he still got excited every time he could get Cagalli to do something his way. At age 19, he was the youngest emirate Orb had ever known and his life was working out perfectly. Women would flock at his door, he had a weekly allowance of 100 000 earth dollars and was quickly gaining influence within the government. Plus he always had his special moments with Cagalli.

Then the war broke out and everything changed. Not immediately, but slowly things started adjusting. Orb had declared itself neutral and on the outside it was not at all affected by the war. Yet, on the inside, war was very, very apparent. The cabinet of emirs had been divided in two: those who wished to remain neutral and those who wanted to side with the Earth Forces. None of them wanted to side with the PLANT.

Cagalli ran off again, three times. The first time she went to Heleopolis, coming back with a salvaged escape pod and a memorable temper tantrum for her father. The next time she went to Africa and joined a resistance group, The Desert Sunset, or something like that. She returned with a bang, the Archangel and that coordinator pilot. On her last escapade, she went to space, and when she finally arrived home she had brought with her a long lost twin brother and a coordinator boyfriend, among other things.

She decided that she would take her father's place, much to everyone's disagreement, and did just that. Her coordinator boyfriend became her bodyguard. At first, everything went smoothly. She did a great job of reconstructing and looking after Orb. Foreign politicians, especially the PLANTs chairman, Dullindal, all took to her frank and straightforward ways. The people of Orb loved her. She never told Yuuna, but he knew she was on cloud nine.

And he knew that her political achievements weren't her only cause for joy. She was having an affair with that bodyguard of hers. Yuuna had always suspected him. From the moment he saw him docking the Archangel, only inches away from his Cagalli, whispering what the older man was sure were naughty words into her ears, he knew the Alex Dino was trouble. Yet, it was only when he caught the two acting inappropriate (a/n: no, you perverts, not that sort of inappropriate, think make-out, nothing more) that he really got on the younger man's case. The truth was, he was jealous of him. Alex Dino. A man of working class means with no past and not much of a future. He had something Yuuna knew he would never have control over Cagalli. And not just any kind, the kind that she consented to and allowed him to have. The kind that she actually sort of enjoyed. He knew how to keep her stable while letting her be free.

When he left, Yuuna nearly jumped for joy. Cagalli on the other hand was all over the place. The second war was looming over her heavily and now her biggest support team (a/n: Team Athrun, woo-hoo!) was gone. He instinctively jumped in to take his place. For the very first time, Cagalli was too lost to resist. Within a day or so of Dino's departure she became his puppet, his plaything and started acting very emotional (a/n: not emo, emotional). In fact, she was so readable and open that it reminded Yuuna of the good old days, when they were children.

Accept that they weren't what they were then anymore. Cagalli hated him now. She found him disgusting and violent, she called him a bore. As for Yuuna, he was still in love with her, but was so overcome by the desire to control her and his lust for that satisfaction that came with it, that it was impossible for his feelings to shine through. Nevertheless, the two married, signed the treaty with the Atlantic Federation and went on with their lives.

Hardly a day or so after the wedding, Alex Dino returned, to save his princess no doubt. The two met privately and talked for a long time. Yuuna had no clue what had gone on between them that day, but when his new wife returned to him, she was more of a ghost than before.

As the war came to it's end, Yuuna started to tire of Cagalli. She didn't seem to care about anything anymore. She was just a shell, walking around aimlessly, taking commands like a dutiful servant. Her hair became lank and her eyes dull. Now if she did something he asked, he considered it normal. There was no more excitement left. That was, until she announced that she was pregnant. Suddenly, she came back to life. Her hair began to shine again and her eyes were brighter than ever. She started challenging Yuuna again, and would no longer do as he said.

Cagalli was back, along with her excitement. But she had changed, and something told Yuuna that she was never changing back, not for him at least. It was only as she lay on her hospital bed, pushing and screaming, close to death, did the man rediscover his love for her. Yet by then it was too late, for the Cagalli he had known was gone. In her place was Mrs. Attha, mother of Lionel and Orb.

* * *

"Mr. Kira! What are you doing here?" asked Meyrin happily, taking a seat next to him on the route 43 city bus. She was coming home from spending the night at her sister's. Kira looked up at the younger woman, then turned back to looking at his feet. 

"Hey," he mumbled weakly. He buried his face in his hands.

Meyrin had never seen Kira like this before. When she had first met him on the Archangel he had so serene and so calm. Even when she spent more time with him after the war, the older man never seemed distressed. At least in her presence. Athrun had once told her about how his old friend was an emotional wreck during the first war but Meyrin had always found that impossible to believe. So it was a shock to see the legendary Freedom pilot like this.

"What's wrong?" she asked quietly, in a calm, sweet voice. Kira jerked his head up, and for a moment, his violet eyes did not leave Meyrin. But he wasn't really staring at her, for that moment, he was focusing on a distant memory that she had somehow evoked. The younger woman gently put her hand on his back and began to stroke it, like one would a sad child. "What's wrong, Mr. Kira?" she asked again.

"It's nothing," replied the man, shifting his gaze from her. Meyrin pouted, but decided to drop the subject.

"So, what are you doing roaming around town on such a fine Saturday mourning?" she inquired curiously, "as far as I know, you don't have 100 hours of work per week," she added smartly. Kira chuckled a bit at her comment.

"Lionel ran off," he answered simply, "I'm looking for him." The red head didn't say anything so he continued to talk. "I really shouldn't be," he said offhandedly, "especially after all the time I spent telling Cagalli not to go. She woke me up at least three times last night wanting to go look for him." He paused, remembering how tired he was, and closed his eyes. "I told her no every time," he continued, "I said that we should just let him be, that this would somehow be good for him."

Meyrin nodded slowly to show Kira that she was following him, "and now you're looking for him?" she asked, realizing that she sounded quite stupid. The man next to her grunted in response (a/n: Kira grunts?).

"I'm such a hypocrite," he mumbled angrily. Without wanting to, he stared at the lady next to him. He barley knew her and she barley knew him. On the rare occasions they had talked, their conversations had always been superficial and formal. She called him Mr. Kira and her called her Miss. Meyrin. Even their conversation the day before had been strained. "I'm sorry," he mumbled, "I really shouldn't be telling you this, it's rude."

What Meyrin did next surprised Kira. Awkwardly, she moved closer towards him and gave him a hug. A friendly hug.

"It's ok, you know," she told him, her left hand now stroking his hair. "I think I know how you feel. No, I know I do. Lionel's your nephew right? It's ok to be worried about him, but you can't let it get to you too much. After all, you're not his parent…" she trailed off, unconsciously removing herself from him. "It's the same for me," she added quietly. "Mayu… I love that kid so much it's a sin. Sometimes I wish I was the one who married Shinn and consummated with him, just so I could be her mother. But then I remember that she wouldn't be the same Mayu if that was the case…"

She trailed off again, and this time she didn't bother to restart. The two adults both sat in silence as the bus drove. They were on the outskirts of town now, in the factory district. Not the glamorous Morgenroete type factories, but the regular, working class ones. The ones where the workers were paid lousy salaries to make products that would then be sold for three times more what they were making. Meyrin and Kira both sat in silence as the bus drove on. After a while it came to a screeching halt.

"Hey! Lovebirds!" called the driver, "this is the end of the line, get off the bus!"

The 'lovebirds' looked around and noticed that they were the only two people, save for the diver, left on the vehicle. Meyrin started laughing and after a moment, Kira joined her. They got off the bus with stupid grins on their faces. It was only as the bus left that the joke lost its humor.

"I forgot, you're looking for your nephew, right?" stammered Meyrin, embarrassed and ashamed.

"Lionel!" remembered Kira, panic filling his eyes. He gave the woman with him a curt nod and ran off to catch the next bus going into town. He was stopped by something tugging on his sleeve.

No, someone.

It was Meyrin. "I…I want to help," she said quietly, in a whisper.

Kira smiled.

* * *

**Ok, I know the whole Yuuna part was a bit weird and probably OOC, but hear me through. I love getting to know your villians and understanding why they're so evil. So Yuuna is still an ass, especially when it comes to Cagalli. I just wanted you guys to understand why he is. Anyways, review please!**


	5. Four

**Ok, here it is, chapter 5!!!! Sorry for the delay (again), but this one's a bit longer than the others, enjoy!**

**Words in _Italics_ are flashbacks unless it's noted otherwise.**

* * *

"…And so then she gets mad and calls him a jackass. Now, your uncle had no idea what to do, so he just stutters. Meanwhile, me and Aisha are laughing our heads off…"

Lionel laughed along with the ex-Desert Tiger as he listened to old stories of his mother during the first war. He had heard the story of the dress many times before, but from his mother's point of view. The way Andy told it transformed the tale into something completely different.

"Your mom sure was a firecracker back then," he mused out load, "I'm surprised you didn't inherit her temper," he paused as a wicked grin worked it's way onto his face, "I'm kind of relieved too."

The blonde boy laughed heartily with the man. He had spent the night at the older man's flat after he had forced him out of _Vagabond's Den_. The older man had been very good to him; letting the teenager take over his bed and making him breakfast. When Lionel explained to him what he was doing on the streets, Andy didn't pry for details like he had expected him too. Instead he just shook his head and mumbled

something along the lines of: "It's about time…"

* * *

Cagalli hated the sound of her phone's ring tone. Mainly because it wasn't a ring tone, but the high-pitched voice of her gossipy secretary, Linda (or was it Laura?) telling her that so and so was on the phone, and that she should say this or that. As if that little brat knew anything about politics! So she was pleasantly surprised that Saturday mourning when all Linda-or-Laura had to say was: "Representative, call for you."

The blonde woman picked it up without response, concentrating all her efforts on blocking the overly curious secretary out of her conversation.

"Representative Attha, what do you want?" she snapped into the receiver. She turned her eyes to look at the phone screen to see Andrew Waltfeld staring back at her.

"You're in a foal mood, Princess," he told her, tauntingly, "what's eating you?" He had a wry grin on his face and was making no effort to hide it. Heck, Cagalli was certain she'd be able to _hear _that grin even without looking at the screen.

"What do you want?" she barked again, she really wasn't in the mood for this. Andrew, on the other hand (line) seemed to be having the time of his life.

"Chill, Princess, chill," he said, acting like an arrogant teenager. "So, how's your husband?" Cagalli didn't respond, she never said anything when people asked her about her husband, unless it was the press of course. "Not answering?" continued the ex-Desert Tiger, clearly amused, "well, whatever, how's your son? Lioney, was it?"

"His name is Lionel!" cried Cagalli into the receiver; she hated it when people messed around with names, especially Lionel's.

The older man laughed.

"Ok, ok, Lionel," he said, waving his arms around melodramatically, "so how's Lionel?"

Cagalli stopped breathing for a second.

"Missing, perhaps?" inquired Andy, in his usual, unbelievably aggravating way that let you know that he already knew the answer to the question he was asking. Normally, if the blonde woman wasn't in over-protective parent mode, she would have denied everything, just for the sake of pride. But it just happened that Cagalli _was_ in over-protective parent mode, so instead of making a scene, she just nodded.

"How did you know?" she asked in complete wonder. "Did Kira tell you?"

The older man shook his head playfully confusing Cagalli like Hell.

"I know cause he's with me."

Cagalli was shocked beyond words.

"What kind of a sick joke is this, Waltfeld?" she snapped once she had (somewhat) regained her composure.

The older man laughed, making Cagalli's temper rise to new levels, which only made him laugh more. One had to wonder if the man got kicks out of watching the Orb representative's face turn fire engine red…

"It's not a joke," he but in, "I wouldn't kid about these sort of things, you should know that by now, princess." Well, fine, there actually was no need to wonder if the notorious Andrew Waltfeld enjoyed this. The blatant truth was that he did. "I mean, is this the face of someone who lie to you…"

"-It's ok, Waltfeld, I believe you!" puffed Cagalli into the phone, caving in. There were some matters where stubbornness could only make thing worse. "So, Lionel's really with you?" she asked, quietly and slowly, not wanting her newfound hope to be dashed.

The older man nodded.

"Kid's in the next room, eavesdropping," he informed with a smile. Cagalli was almost certain that she could hear her son cursing in the background. "You wanna talk to him?"

"Please," said Cagalli anxiously. Andrew asked her to wait a minute. (What's in _Italics_ is what's happening on the other line when Andy isn't speaking directly into the phone.)

"_Kid!" he called, "your Mom wants to talk to you! Do you…?"_

"_No!" spat Lionel, "Not now, not yet…"_

"He doesn't want to," said the older man after a pause, "sorry," he added sincerely.

"No, it's ok," replied the boy's mother, disappointed. She bit her lip and lowered her eyes, trying her best not to cry. Lionel was safe; that was the important thing. Or at least, that was what Cagalli kept telling herself. It would have been nice though, if he had picked up the phone and talked to her.

Andy hated seeing the girl he used to patronize so much like this. When Cagalli was angry, she was in her essence and no real harm could come from it, save for a few black eyes. But when the younger woman was sad and teary-eyed like this well, for lack of a better term, Andrew found her pathetic. He made a mental note to himself; he'd have to tell Lionel about this.

"So, Princess," he began again, his tone not quite so cocky, "there's another reason I called you up this fine Saturday afternoon." Cagalli groaned. She gave him the get-on-with-it look, and he did just that. "Your son's not that good at keeping secrets," he said, sounding all-business, "he told me about what happened between you two."

Cagalli's eyes flashed.

"Can't say that I'm surprised though," he added, leaving Cagalli to wonder what he was surprised about. "Anyways, the kid wants to get to know his old man, by any means possible, or at least that's what I deduced, so I thought why not let him meet the guy you, well you know, made that kid with." The blonde woman rolled her eyes in spite of everything. "So, yeah, I was thinking I could show him what his dad used to that made you so…giddy, shall we say," Cagalli gave him an odd look, what exactly was he going on about? "You know," continued the Ex-Desert Tiger, "piloting mobile suits…"

The Orb representative's reaction was immediate.

"NO!" she barked, "no! No! No! I will not have my son in a killing machine, do you hear me?" Cagalli was wearing her politician face; the one she used when she was in meetings concerning life or death matters.

Fortunately for him, Andy had accompanied Lacus Clyne to quite a few political events back in the day, and knew better than to let the princess's scary face make him back away.

"I don't see what's your problem with this, Cagalli. You piloted one, no two, of those killing machines yourself, did you not?" He asked her this in complete seriousness, not willing to let her get away with denying something like this.

"I did, but that happened in times of war!" she exclaimed, "the world has been at peace for close to 20 years now! There's no need for Lionel to know how to pilot one of those these days!"

"Maybe not these days, but what about when you and your brother are old and decrepit and completely unable to pilot your suits and some new and improved Blue Cosmos group attacks Orb? (Because we all know that's when they're gonna come), who's going to be your war hero then? Certainly not that husband of yours..."

Cagalli glared at the speaker.

"NO!" she boomed.

Andy sighed. It was time to take out the big guns. The man wasn't particularly fond of any kind of _big guns_, but when it was time to use them, it was time to use them.

"You don't want me telling him too much about his real Dad, do you Princess?" he asked, his voice becoming low and snakelike. "You'd much rather he knows nothing about Zala, wouldn't you."

The blonde woman gulped; he was right. If she could have it her way, Lionel would not know anything of his real father.

"What are you trying to say?" she asked in a tone that matched his. Andy sighed.

"I hate to do this to ya, Princess, but we're going to have to strike a bargain. You let me and the kid fool around with some mobile suits and I won't say another word about his father." Andrew watched Cagalli as she thought about his proposition. She was carefully weighing her options –something he had taught her to do. "So," he asked, "deal?"

Cagalli hesitated.

"Deal," she said.

* * *

Kira seemed relieved. No, not relieved. Kira seemed to be much more than relieved, but at the moment Meyrin couldn't think of a better word, so she just left it at that.

Cagalli had called a few minutes ago, and from the look on Kira's face, the red head had guessed that they had found Lionel, or at least some sort of sign to show that he was safe and sound. He and his sister were still chatting to each other, but Meyrin wasn't listening. It was rude to eavesdrop.

Instead, she was fiddling around with the GPS system on her cell phone (it's CE what? I'm pretty sure they have those), trying to figure out where they were. The two of them had searched all over the place for the missing blonde boy after being told to get off that bus. After a while they had come to the conclusion that Lionel wasn't in the factory district and that was about when Cagalli called. Meyrin's portable phone beeped, telling her that they were on the corner of Scray Street and Woodward Avenue. It also told that there were two busses nearby; the route 43 and the route 198 busses were both a block or so away.

"The 198 would take us right downtown," said Kira suddenly, looking over her shoulder. Meyrin couldn't help but notice how close he was to her. She could almost feel his rough front against her delicate back.

"Uh, yeah," she said, blushing. "Are you going to take it?" They had both stopped calling each other by their names a while ago. Mr. Kira and Miss Meyrin just didn't feel right but dropping the formalities was something the two of them were just not ready for yet.

Kira nodded, "I'll assume you're taking the 43 back home, right?"

"Don't assume," said Meyrin, "all you'll end up doing is making an ass out of you _and_ me." For some weird reason, she was feeling a lot bolder than usual, and, dare she say it, a lot more flirtatious too. Kira gave her a questioning look, making her blush and turn back into her normal not-at-all-bold-or-flirtatious self. "Sorry, forget I ever said that," she said quickly, "and, yes, I am taking the 43." Meyrin sighed. Why did she still end up sounding like an overly hormonal teenager when she was perfectly capable of acting like an adult?

"Oh, I see," said Kira nodding, "well I guess I'll be off then."

He sounded disappointed. The red head didn't want to be thinking this, but she couldn't help it: for a second there, Kira had really seemed upset.

"Oh, ok, I'd better get going too," she told him, reluctantly.

The two of them just stood there, fidgeting, wanting to leave, but not wanting to.

"Here, take this," said Kira finally, placing a small, rectangular piece of cardboard into the palm of her right hand. "You're a nice person, I don't want to lose track of you again." He was acting like a schoolboy, which made Meyrin feel a bit less embarrassed of her own feelings.

"Right," she responded after a semi-awkward silence. "Me neither," she added. She looked at what Kira had given her and gasped.

"I'll be seeing you then, Miss Meyrin!" said Kira, running off to catch 198 bus. The younger woman waved goodbye and looked back down at what the man had given her.

_Kira_

_(518)-672-6632__

* * *

_

Lionel looked up at the golden machine, Akatsuki, one of his mother's prized possessions, and then looked at Andy.

"Are you sure we should be touching this?" he asked skeptically. "Mom's nearly killed a couple of guys who got to close to this thing last year."

The older man chuckled.

"Did she really?" he pondered out load. "Don't worry about it kid," he told Lionel, "if the firecracker explodes, I'll be there to cool it. You just work on functioning that machine." He helped Lionel get into the cockpit and made his way to the control room. "Let's see what you got kid!" he said over the intercom.

* * *

Cagalli made an appearance about fifteen minutes after they began, claiming that she was inspecting the facilities. Of course, those who knew her well immediately recognized the lie, but they went along with it, not wanting to get on the bad side of an extremely moody Cagalli Yula Attha. She had hovered outside the control room door before entering, and even once she was in there, she was very uncertain in her movements. However, she regained her strength and confidence the minute she was greeted by the ex-Desert Tiger.

"Hey there, Princess!" he said, "I see you've come to check up on that son of yours!"

"No," she replied coolly, "I just happened to be in the vicinity, that's all," her voice began to waver as she finished her sentence. The man shrugged.

"Well, you might as well come have a looksie at how the kid's doing down there," he told her, pointing to large glass window that separated the control room from the practice room. "He's not amazing, but he's holding up pretty well for a novice. You look tired," he said, "must've been a long night last night."

The blonde woman just nodded and the two of them watched the Akatsuki perform. Andy had been to kind in his critique of Lionel's skills: the boy was a horrible pilot. Cagalli felt selfishly relieved that he didn't have either Kira or Athrun's flare for it. Suddenly, a thought struck her; she looked to the ex-Desert Tiger.

"If…if his father passes by…" she began timidly, "if his father were to, by some unforeseen turn of events, pass by here, don't tell him that's Lionel piloting the Akatsuki, please?"

The older man gave her an odd look.

"I thought his father was in the PLANTS," he said very flatly, not bothering to lower his voice. The blonde woman glared at him viciously.

"You know exactly what I mean," she snapped, "don't play dumb."

"You're the one who's playing dumb," replied Andy, quickly and coolly. It took all those years of princess courses and all the years Cagalli had worked as a politician to stop her from killing him on the spot.

Instead, she took in a deep breath and said: "I really must get going now, perhaps I'll see you later," and stormed out.

"Oh, no you don't," said Andy, catching and cornering the woman in the hallway. "We need to talk."

The Orb representative gave him a questioning look and then glared at him.

"What the fuck do you want?" she demanded.

"Why don't you just tell your kid the goddamn truth already?" the man shot back. "He deserves to know!" During the time he had spent with Lionel, Andy had grown fond of the kid, and with each passing minute, he found it harder and harder to hide the truth from him. It didn't help that honesty was one of the values he held highest.

"It's for the better!" snapped Cagalli. She couldn't help notice how old that line was stating to become. "You talk about the truth as if it alone could solve all problems! But that's not how it works and you know it! The truth hurts! Heck, it can even kill! Do you think I like waking up next to that _man_ every mourning? Do you think I'm happy with how my life turned out just because it's the truth?"

* * *

_The drive to Morgenroete had been a nice one. Andy and Lionel had listened to rock music (Lionel's favorite) while the ex-ZAFT soldier told him more tales of his mother and uncle's exploits. The blonde boy was still laughing about the last one when the older man's tone changed._

"_Kid," he said, "you realize your mom's gonna be there, right?" Lionel nodded dumbly. Truth be told, he hadn't. "It'd be nice if you go and talk to her –at least say hi."_

"_Uh…okay," he said after a moment of hesitation. Not all sure weather he actually would talk to his mother or not. _

He and Andy were riding back to the older man's place in the guy's vintage automobile, as he called it, or, as Lionel thought of it, just anther old car. Unlike earlier, when the machine had been filled with noise, the car was silent. Both men were in quiet, pensive states.

It turned out that Lionel didn't talk to his mom. She had only been there for a minute or so and he really didn't want to talk to her anyways. His mind was fucked up enough as it was; he didn't want her to do anymore damage.

Andy, on the other hand, was thinking of his confrontation with Cagalli and how it had gone down. He hadn't only done it for Lionel; he had done it for Athrun too. Out of those four (Kira, Lacus, Cagalli, Athrun), the blue haired coordinator was the one he knew least, but he still cared for him like he did the others. The old man sighed; he had really underestimated that girl and her feelings.

* * *

It was Monday. Lionel and Andy had spent all of Sunday getting the blonde boy ready for school. Neither of them had really mentioned Saturday. The retired soldier had offered the younger man a ride to school, which he had readily accepted, not too sure how to get there from where he was.

Now they were at the front gate and Andy was mumbling something about how he wouldn't be coming to him pick up that afternoon. Lionel was a bit surprised, but not really. Adults could be cool when they wanted to be, but after a while they'd start acting responsible again.

He was leaving the car when his manners caught up with him.

"Uh, thanks for everything, Saturday was really great," he began, embarrassed, "oh, and you're not 'the-guy-who-forced-me-into-a-dress'," he added, "you're the-stupid-goof-who-puts-yogurt-sauce-on-his-kabobs."

Andy laughed heartily.

Not all was lost.

* * *

**I've already got tons of ideas for the next chapter! Review!**


	6. Five

**Well aren't you guys lucky, I wasn't planning on updating this for a while yet, but after a sudden busrt of inspiration, I ended up writing the whole chapter. Anyways, enjoy!

* * *

**

Mayu hated physics. It was a boring, useless subject taught by an old fart of a teacher, Professor Kato, who thought he was cool because he had worked at Morgenroete in his youth. So what? Both her parents were mobile suit pilots, some of the elite, at that, and her aunt had served on both the Archangel and the Eternal. Playing around with machines for a big paycheck was nothing compared to what they had done.

Sighing, the young girl turned around to look at her seatmate, Lionel something Attha Serian. He actually liked the subject and the windbag teaching it too! Normally he was far too preoccupied with what was happening up front to pay attention to her, and she didn't really mind. Mayu preferred to goof off on her own. Today though, Lionel seemed much more interested in what was going on outside than what the professor had to say.

Something was wrong.

"Psst, Attha, are you ok?" she asked in a worried whisper. The blonde boy looked at her in wonder and then nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I guess," he whispered back. He didn't sound convinced.

"Are you and your mom still fighting?" Lionel didn't respond. Mayu groaned. "Attha!" she exclaimed quietly, "remember what I told you on Friday, about how you shouldn't keep your feelings all cooped up?" The blonde boy blushed for some reason the brunette girl couldn't figure out.

"Fine," he finally said with a defeated, he looked to his crush, "yeah, we're still fighting, I guess…" he trailed off. It was a bit too complicated for him to explain, at least right now.

Mayu fiddled around with her silky, mahogany hair, twirling it like a dance partner, trying her best to not look too interested in what Lionel was saying. Suddenly, her face lit up the way it always did when she remembered something.

"Is it…are you guys fighting because of your Dad?" she asked hesitantly.

"How did you find out about that?" demanded the boy next to her, not bothering to mind his tone of voice, and disturbing the whole class. Professor Kato glared at the both of them.

"Lionel! Mayu! I understand that physics is a difficult subject, but I'm almost certain that you would find much easier if you paid attention in class and saved your gossiping for the break!" He barked, making the other students giggle.

"We weren't gossiping!" Mayu barked back, earning impressed yet scandalized _ohs_ from the rest of the class. She couldn't help it; it was in her nature to be defensive. Beside her, Lionel was staring at the floor in total and complete mortification, wishing that his crush would shut up before she said something stupid that would make him the pun of everyone's jokes for the next month.

The older man narrowed his eyes at the young brunette girl, secretly enjoying this challenge. Kids these days were just too polite.

"If you weren't gossiping, then tell me what matter is of such concern to you that you felt the need to disturb my class by discussing it here?" he questioned, sounding professional, stuffy and old and feeling quite the opposite.

Mayu glared at her teacher with intensity. You weren't supposed to that sort of thing, giving your elders dirty looks and whatnot, but it was the best she could come up with so she decided to ignore the rules.

"You wouldn't understand," she finally said. It seemed like she was giving in but she wasn't; she was just buying time. At the moment, the young girl loathed her physics professor and his guts. How dare he assume that she and Lionel were just casually gossiping? Couldn't he see that Attha hadn't been himself recently? "You're-

Just as Mayu was about to start insulting her teacher out of frustration, someone knocked on the door.

"Saved by the visitor it seems," said Kato, his tone a bit more human than it had been a minute ago, "I'll see you after class, Mayu," he added in a stricter tone, he went to open the door, "you too, Lionel."

As he opened the door, a woman came in. From the looks of it, she was about Mayu's mother's age, perhaps a bit older. She had short, perky brown hair and crystal-like blue eyes, she carried herself with a certain amount of dignity and wore a sincere smile on her face.

"Class, this is Miriallia Haww," said the professor, smiling at her like a fool in love, "she's an old student of mine, from when I was working at Morgenroete."

Mayu groaned. Not another Morgenroete flashback! The woman at the front of the class, now known as Miriallia, chuckled.

"Does he do this to you guys too?" she asked, "back when he was my teacher, he would never shut up about his days in the Orb military, it was so annoying…"

Mayu smiled, she liked Miriallia.

"I can understand that I can be annoying, but we're not here to discuss that," said Kato. The brunette girl guessed that discuss (and all words like it) was one of his favorite terms. The man turned to look at the class, "the reason I invited Miriallia here today is because unlike your history teacher, I believe that it is important that you know of the Bloody Valentine wars. You probably aren't going to learn anything about them from your other teachers, either, seeing as they won't dare touch anything that's not _their_ subject." Mayu noticed that there was a certain amount of venom in her teacher's tone. He turned to his old student, "Miriallia here played a part in both wars, by default, aboard the notorious Archangel nonetheless. I thought it would do you kids some good to hear her story."

The woman up-front smiled and nodded in acknowledgement. "I can that a few of you are surprised," she began, "a woman like me on the all-powerful Archangel?" she asked sarcastically, pointing to herself. "I'll remind you all that is was a woman who captained that ship to victory after victory!" A nervous laugh filled the room.

Miriallia giggled.

"Feel free to ignore that outburst, it's just an old friend talking…"

Mayu raised an eyebrow; this woman was a little weird. She kind of reminded of her mom, or her aunt, or maybe it was just that all adults were weird.

"Anyways, I'd better get on with my story, you guys have recess after this, right? I wouldn't want to have you miss that," said the crystal-eyed lady. "So, my story starts one peaceful afternoon in Heleopolis," she narrated nostalgically, "my friends and I, and my boyfriend were all interns at the Morgenroete facilities there. We'd go there after school and work on whatever the Prof. here," she pointed to Kato, "told us too. Of course there was only one of us who could actually pull off any real work, and that was my friend Kira Yamato, a coordinator."

* * *

Lionel hadn't really been interested in what Miriallia had to say. Sure, her story was nice and all and she seemed to be a nice lady, but he had already heard it a million and one times thanks to his uncle and of course, his mother. 

The blonde boy took the opportunity to doze off and think about what he was going to this afternoon. No doubt Cagalli would try to meet him at the end of classes and want to talk things over. The young Attha hated how fucking scared he was of that. He felt that somehow his fear of confronting his mother was…treacherous. Cagalli never wasted time letting her opinion be known, when she wanted to ask a question she never beat around the bush. And yet, Lionel, her only son wasn't even man enough to face his own mother about the most important man in both of their lives. The teen groaned; obviously, he had gotten this quality from his Zaftie father.

Annoyed with where his chain of thought was bringing him, Lionel decided to give it a rest and listen to what Miriallia was going on about instead.

"I don't think that anybody slept well that night," she was saying, "we were all so worried about her. I felt so cheated when I found out that Cagalli had spent her whole time flirting with, with some boy while she was on that island."

The older woman continued to talk, but her words no longer reached Lionel. Without realizing it, he raised his hand. It took Miriallia a minute or two to realize this, but eventually, she caught sight of his muscled arm floating around in the air.

"Uh, you, Lionel Attha, right?" she said, her clear blue eyes looking down upon him warmly.

"Yeah," replied the blonde boy hesitantly. It was not so much that he was hesitant, but that the lady up front had called him Lionel Attha and not Lionel Attha Serian, as the rest of the magazine reading middle-aged women did (not that 30-something is middle aged). A moment passed before he said anything else. "Y-you said that Cagalli –my mom, spent the night with some guy on that island…" he trailed off, not too sure where to go from there.

"Oh thanks a lot!" exclaimed Miriallia playfully, "you just gave away the catch for the next part of the story." She pouted, earning a few giggles from the class, all while avoiding answering Lionel. "As for your mom, well, I was so ticked off when I found out about her spending the whole night with a guy, I forget what I did, but it wasn't pretty."

"Was it my father?" he asked.

"Yuuna Roma Serian?" She questioned rhetorically, "no," she answered.

Lionel's eyes widened; Miriallia knew. She knew about his real father!

Suddenly, he noticed Mayu's hand fly up into the air. The lady pointed to her.

"What was that guys name?" she asked directly, "the guy who spent the night on the island with Cagalli…sama?" Lionel noticed that she was reluctant to add the last bit. He looked up to the woman in front of the class with desperately curious eyes. She seemed taken aback by the young girl's question.

"What's _your_ name?" she asked instead of replying.

"Huh? What does that have to do with anything?" demanded the easily angered girl.

"You asked for a name, you might as well give me one first," stated the older woman. Mayu groaned.

"Mayu Asuka-Hawke," she muttered, making no effort to hide her displeasure.

"Though so," said Miriallia with a wry smile, "so, anyways, the guy's name was Athrun," she told the younger girl hesitantly. "Now, where was I…" She began again before the brunette girl had a chance to ask for Athrun's last name.

* * *

After telling them both off for disrupting the class, Professor Kato let the two of them off without so much as a warning. The minute he did, both children were out of his class: Lionel running off to nowhere and Mayu following him without success. 

"I still can't believe Cagalli is actually letting you teach her kid," said Miriallia the minute they left. "I thought she had lost all faith in you."

"She has," replied the woman's old teacher, "why else do you think I'm no longer working at Morgenroete, let alone aloud near the grounds? I'm pretty sure that I'd be sued if she ever finds out that I tell my students about it," he told her with a laugh. "I still can't believe that you're friends with that princess!"

"We were," corrected the brunette quietly. She looked at her wristwatch. The numbers 10:11 flashed back at her in neon green. "Well, I'm going to see if I can get a few snapshots," she said, taking out her all access camera, "teens hanging out make for great material." She made her way to the door.

"Miriallia, before you go," stuttered Kato, sounding like he had a question to ask. The woman looked back at him. "Please don't tell Cagalli that I've been bragging about my days at Morgenroete," he finished, sounding defeated. Like what he said didn't come out the way he wanted it to.

Milly laughed a bit and said "don't worry, I wont."

* * *

Lionel was eating lunch with his friends, Bertrand and Hakura when his crush came to join them. 

"Do you mind if I sit here?" she asked, pointing to the spot next to Lionel. His two friends shrugged and said it was all right, but she only sat down once the blonde boy finally made some sign of agreement. She then took out her lunch and began to go through what she would eat and what she wouldn't. Bertrand and Hakura talked to her a bit before eventually drifting off to other places, but Lionel did everything in his power to ignore her. He had been avoiding her all day, in fact.

However Mayu Asuka-Hawke wasn't going to let that stop her.

"So, Attha, what did you do this weekend?"

Silence.

"Anything exciting?"

Quiet.

"What did you and you're uncle do Friday?"

No response.

"Me and Aunt Meyrin came home _so_ late, Daddy was so mad!"

Still no response.

"You know, I think my aunt and your uncle like each other."

"Excuse me –WHAT?" demanded Lionel, finally snapping.

"Ha, I knew that would work!" exclaimed Mayu triumphantly. The blonde boy looked unhappy at the thought of being manipulated that easily, but the brunette girl didn't really care. "Don't worry too much about what I said, about Aunt Meyrin and your uncle, I just noticed that they seemed happy to see each other Friday."

Lionel turned away, trying to hide his blush and said, "I wasn't worried." There was no use for him to try ignoring his crush now that he had responded.

The young woman shrugged, "whatever," she said. She plopped something edible into her mouth. "So, why are you so upset about your dad Attha?"

"Why do you care?" the blonde boy snapped back, "how the hell do you know about my dad anyways?" Mayu's eyes widened. She had always known Lionel Attha Serian to be that reserved, passive, but cute boy who paid attention in physics. She had never though it possible for him to be so…explosive. The young girl had never imagined that he would act this way, especially towards her. She felt a few tears well up in her eyes. Perhaps it was foolish and weak to cry for so little, but she couldn't help herself; Mayu had always been a sensitive girl.

"Is it wrong for me to?" she asked meekly. Lionel looked at her sadly, and for a moment, they both thought that they were living in a soap opera.

"It's fine for you to care," he said, "but you're not supposed to know about my father." Mayu raised an eyebrow. "Heck, I'm not even supposed to know about him! I'm supposed to believe that Yuuna Roma Serian is my father! But how can I? I've always known that he wasn't, no matter how much I tried to believe it, I've always known that it's a lie!"

Mayu silently put her hand on his cheek.

"So that's what been eating you," she said, happy to have finally figured out why Lionel had been acting so strange, but sad because she felt sorry for him. On impulse, she hugged him, hoping it would help, and he hugged her back after a minute of uncertainty. After a minute or two they broke apart, but not completely. Mayu kept her hand on Lionel's shoulder, to keep him stable. "So, what about your real father?" she asked.

The blonde boy bit his lip; he had no clue how to explain it, though he did have the will power to.

"It's complicated," he began.

"Is he the guy your mom met on that island?" asked the teenage girl next to him. Lionel was taken aback. He tried to ask her how she knew this, but no words came out of his mouth. "The lady told us his name was Athrun, and Daddy told me that your _real_ dad's name was Athrun Zala. I doubt your mom knows two Athruns." Lionel stared at her, not at all certain of what to say.

"How would your dad know?" he inquired five seconds later, "he hates my mom!"

The girl shrugged.

"You know, I'm not really sure how he found out either," she said. "But he does know your mom, Attha, and people who know each other tend to know everything about each other."

Suddenly, an idea struck Lionel.

"If your dad knows about mine, then a bunch of other people must too," he said confidently.

"What?" questioned Mayu. As far as she knew, the rest of the public knew nothing about Lionel's real…origins.

"What did you say my dad's name was, Athrun Zala? What if we looked him up on Internet, I mean, he was a ZAFT soldier, there has got to be something on him…"

* * *

Lionel typed the words slowly.

A T H R U N Z A L A

His father's name.

Hesitantly, he pressed the search button. He watched as the Internet homepage turned to a page full of links. He clicked on the first one He watched as it began to load.

Lionel held his breath.

On the loading page was his father.

* * *

**Oh! A clifhanger! Not a big one, but it's a clifhanger nonetheless. I'm so proud of myself, I don't normally do clifhangers. Like you guys care. Anyways, I would care very much if you felt so kind as to drop me a review. Peace out!**


	7. Six

**Wow, is this a dream? Is this true? Am I really posting a new chapter? Yes! Sorry for the delay, I just had a total lack of inspiration when it came to writing down my ideas (though I had, and still have, TONS of ideas) so, here you go, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Seed, or Gundam Seed Destiny, which has started to air on YTV with bad dubbing.**

* * *

"OH!"

"AH!"

"Sorry!"

"Excuse-me!"

It took a moment for the two people who had bumped into each other to realize who exactly the person who had made them fall onto the tiled cafe floor was. Miriallia woke up to the fact first.

"Aren't you supposed to be in class?" she asked with a wry smile.

Lionel stuttered. "Uh…well…no?"

The older woman laughed.

"You don't have to lie, I won't tell," she told him, "school can get pretty boring at times."

The blond boy let a small chuckle and blushed. After lunch he had decided to skip class. He probably wouldn't have done such a thing if he wasn't on the run from his mother and her husband. Cagalli had been ready to kill him that one time he didn't go to school when he was 14. But today, he figured that he was in enough trouble as it was and that missing a course or two wouldn't change that much.

"So, what are you doing here?" asked Miriallia, "you _are_ supposed to be in class, aren't you?" The teenager was quiet, making the older woman sigh. "Am I that uncool?" she questioned to no one in particular. Lionel felt guilty.

"It's not that," he said quietly, "it's…it's just hard to explain."

It was sometime around then that the two of them realized that they were both sitting rather stupidly on a café floor and earning more than a few strange looks.

"How about we get a table?" Miriallia laughed.

"Sounds like a smart idea," mumbled the teen, shrugging.

They choose one of the more discreet tables to sit at, and because of their choice, had to wait a good ten minutes before being served. But Miriallia and Lionel, especially Lionel, hardly noticed. They both had more important things to worry about.

"So…so you know about _him_, don't you?" asked the blond boy quietly, a bit embarrassed. He had only remembered his classroom discovery.

The older woman's mood darkened considerably as she tried to avoid the subject.

"Oh, I know lots of hims," she began with a plastered smile.

"I mean my father," interrupted the teenager impatiently. _Damn_, Miriallia cursed inwardly, despite his mild-mannered personality, when push came to shove Lionel could be as forceful as his mother. "You know about Athrun Zala, right?"

Again, the adult tried to avoid the subject, "of course I do, everyone knows about Athrun Zala. He's a war hero, piloted an array of mobile suits, son of Patrick Zala…"

"And my father."

This time, the older woman was forced to give.

"And your father," she repeated in defeat. "Fine, you win. I know about him."

* * *

Mayu was perplexed, _very_ perplexed. Perplexed in way that irritated her to the point of no return. She had to find out more about this Athrun Zala guy.

Lionel had disappeared after lunch without giving her or anyone else the slightest clue as to why. Shortly after they had started their research on the blond boy's biological father, the bell had rung, indicating the end of their lunch period. Mayu would have liked to print what they had found on Athrun Zala and study them instead of her assigned work with Lionel for the rest of the days, but the computer room monitor threw them out before she had the chance. Afterwards, she and Attha had split because he claimed he needed to relieve himself. The young girl had gone straight to class and waited. And waited. And waited. Her new _friend_ had never shown up.

Glancing outside, Mayu sighed. What an interesting day this was turning out to be. Suddenly, she noticed something that perked her interest; a limo pulled up just in front of the school, a royal Orb limo. Any good Orb citizen knew that only a select few ever rode in one of those: the so-called royal family. Fascinated, she watched as a young man who was either a butler or a chauffeur scrambled to open the door and help out Cagalli Yula Attha. Mayu gasped a little. What was she doing here? Then it struck her: Lionel.

_Shit_, she thought, _what's she going to do when she finds out Attha's not here?_ Taking a quick peek at her watch, she saw that it was 3:30p.m. She still had another half-hour of school left. Growling, she looked up at her teacher, _what class am I in anyways?_ she asked herself, Mayu had never been good at paying attention. She looked back outside; Cagalli had just started to make her way towards the school. Thinking fast, she raised her hand, and without even waiting to be noticed, asked: "Can I go to the bathroom?"

Nobody was really surprised at Asuka-Hawke's outburst, save for the teacher, the brunette had never cared for discretion. Her teacher, a pathetic substitute, let her leave without the slightest fight.

"Cagalli-sama!" She cried out, adding the second bit grudgingly. "Cagalli-sama, I need to talk to you!" Even though she was no more than five meters away from her country's leader, the Head representative of Orb seemed oblivious to Mayu's calling (and her efforts to be respectful). "Don't ignore me, goddamnit!" she cursed. This time, she caught the blond woman's attention, for better or for worse.

"Fine, I'm not ignoring you. What is it you want?" snapped Cagalli, turning to face the teenager, an aura of frustration and power enveloping her. All of a sudden, Mayu, who was normally brimming with confidence, was at a total loss of words and courage.

"Well…umm…you se-"

"Look, if it's not important, I have to met up with my son," Cagalli said coldly, "have a nice day."

Mayu decided that Athrun Zala had to be one of the nicest guys in the history of nice guys for Lionel to be such a sweetie when his mom was such a bitch. In all honesty, she was a bit taken aback by Cagalli's quick and unforgiving mouth; the woman had come off as a lot…weaker in her father's stories. He exaggerated too much, decided the brunette, way too much. Then, she noticed the blond woman walking off into the distance.

"WAIT!" she cried, "this is about him! Your son!" The older one turned to face her in bewilderment. Mayu continued to speak, "he's not here, he left!"

Cagalli took in this information with a certain amount of shock. Lionel, skipping school? What had that imbecile Desert Tiger told him?

"Just who are you?" she finally asked the teen who had approached her. The girl stared away uncertainly, but spoke nonetheless.

"Mayu As-"

"Asuka-Hawke," Cagalli finished for her, laughing a bit. A radiant smile made it's way onto her face, "let's talk," she said, leading Mayu to her limo. "This is the only place we'll get to talk without being disturbed," she explained as she opened the car door, "so no, I'm not kidnapping you," she added.

After they were both in, Cagalli ordered her driver to take them for a ride, without much indication about where they were going. Then, she turned to the young girl.

"Sorry about earlier," she said, "I guess I'm just a little stressed out." And then a smirk creeped onto her face, "you know, I've never had the chance to meet one of Lionel's girlfriend's before," she said mischievously.

"I'm not his girlfriend!" exclaimed Mayu instantly. Cagalli laughed, making her blush.

"No, but he likes you," she said, "or at least that's what he told me the last time I spoke to him…" The blond woman, who had been smiling for a while now continued to do so, but became a lot more mellow. "I haven't talked to him for over a week now."

The younger girl felt sympathetic towards her, "oh yeah, you guys had some sort of fight, right?" She tactfully let out the part where Lionel told her about his real father.

The Orb leader raised an eyebrow, "is that what he told you?" she asked, sounding somewhat pleased for a reason that Mayu failed to grasp. "That little bugger, I've been letting him spend to much time at the office, he's learning to tell convincing lies."

Though she was curious to know what Attha was lying about, the brunette was more intrigued by Cagalli at the moment. The way she talked about her son, the way she was always smiling when she did so, the way her eyes shone when someone mentioned her name…it made Shinn's daughter wonder about being a mother. Mayu had always wanted to be one, ever since she was little and playing with baby dolls, but she had never really thought about the work or commitment or sacrifice that it meant. Luna, he mother had always made it look so easy. Cagalli did too, in a way, when she was in front of the camera's she had to, but there was something in the way she held herself that personified a loving struggle. She wasn't a cutout mom, but she was a good one nonetheless, almost as good as Mayu's.

"I don't if I should be telling you this," began Cagalli, breaking her chain of thought, "but Lionel's run away from home," she suddenly became quiet, while the violet-eyed girl's orb's shot wide open in shock. "I told him something I shouldn't have and…"

"You told him about his real father, didn't you?" interrupted, breaking the vow she had made herself to not bring up Athrun Zala.

"How do you know about that?" demanded the older woman, much like her son had done in their physics class that mourning. Mayu giggled at this.

"At-Lionel told me about it," she confessed after a minute, "actually, we kinda figured out who he is…" she trailed off embarrassed.

"And who is he?" snapped the Head Representative, sounding as cold as she had earlier. She obviously didn't like other people meddling with _her_ affairs.

"Athrun Zala," mumbled the brunette in a small voice, glancing up at her county's leader she decided not to linger on the subject and continued to talk, "we did a bit of research on him at lunch. You know, I heard his name a bunch of times but I never realized he was _the_ Athrun Zala."

"Yeah, because there are a ton of other Athrun Zalas out there," commented Cagalli sarcastically.

"I know!" Mayu snapped back enthusiastically, "but I just…didn't think about that. Lionel didn't either, I think it was more of a shock to him than it was to me, because he was really freaked out after he read that his dad is the Athrun Zala. I guess I'd be pretty shocked too if I was in that position…" the brunette stopped her babbling once she realized that the blonde woman was starting to relax again.

"Did he read anything about Patrick Zala?" she asked Mayu, who shrugged.

"I'm not sure, probably, they mentioned that on the web page…"

"I doubt he missed it," Cagalli muttered bitterly. "I guess that's why he ran off, that kid's sure good at running away…"

* * *

_Flashback_

_Kiwidepia was** the **source when it came to finding information. Known as the Internet encyclopedia, it had articles on every subject known to man and on every person who was even remotely famous. It's total accuracy only added to its good reputation. _

_Lionel hadn't realized that he'd pressed on Kiwidepia's link when he choose the page about his father and hadn't really minded when he found out that was the one he choose._

_Hoping he wouldn't find anything to atrocious, he began to read. _

"**_Athrun Zala, born October 29th, CE 55 to Patrick and Lenore Zala, he was sent to Cornipercus Lunar Academy at the age of…"_**

_Lionel had stopped reading there, and then, in hopeful denial, read the first bit over again. But that didn't help, the words didn't miraculously change the way he would have liked them to. And then his common sense kicked in; he should have known when Mayu first told him the name! Athrun Zala. How many other Athrun Zalas were there?_

_Lionel cursed, partly because he couldn't believe how stupid he had been and partly because he had just realized he was a genocidal maniac's grandson (history didn't remember Patrick Zala very well)._

_The bell rang. _

"_Ok, you miscreants, get out of here!" cried the computer room supervisor. _

_The blond boy accepted the invitation with open arms._

_End of Flashback

* * *

_

Lionel didn't really understand why Miriallia had been so hesitant about talking about his father. She didn't seem like the bitter ex-girlfriend type, nor the sworn enemy sort. In fact, once she had started talking about him she had come off as liking and admiring the guy. She told Lionel all sorts of things about Athrun, some of which he knew of, some of which he didn't; how he was the idiot creator of the _Haro_ (now a highly marketed toy). How he had piloted a number of top-notch machines, like The Justice, for example. How his sense of Justice was very strong and how he had acted as his mother's bodyguard when she was first in power.

In reply to this, the blond boy told his mother's old friend a bit about what was going on in his life, briefly passing over everything, from Cagalli spilling her secret to why he was skipping school that day. Once he had done so, Miriallia had offered for him to stay her and her husband's place for the night, or as long as he liked. The only catch was he had to call his mother.

"Aww, come on! Do I have to?" Lionel pleaded, "you guys are friends, can't you call her for me?" Suddenly, Miriallia's mood darkened.

"Lionel," she said, "this is the part about your father that I didn't want to have to tell you about." The blond boy looked up at her in scared curiosity, his amber eyes reflecting what seemed like his every thought. "Athrun was a soldier, he did as he was told and followed orders, he showed no mercy for those on the opposing side, so it's only normal that this sort of thing happened, but…to get to the point, he killed my boyfriend."

Both she and the blond boy sat in silence for what seemed like forever. Lionel felt sick to his stomach; somehow, knowing that his father had killed someone, someone with a name, a face and a lover was far more disgusting than being Patrick Zala's grandson. Athrun Zala was a complex character, with every new piece of information he learnt about him, Lionel was thrown into a new world of chaotic emotions.

"Yeah, but you're married now, right?" he squeaked, "so it's ok, right?" Miriallia ruffled the kid's Kira-styled head of hair.

"It's more complicated than that. Yeah, I moved on and got married, but Tolle was, I hate to sound cheesy, but he was my first love, and there's a small part of me that will never forgive your father for killing him." She paused and then let out a wry smile, "you'll understand when that Asuka girl dumps you," she said, making Lionel blush.

"How does this tie in with me having to call my mom?" he asked once he finally gathered the courage to do so.

"Your father was badly injured in that battle where he killed Tolle," Miriallia explained in a very neutral tone, "and two of the pilots serving on our ship, Tolle and Kira, you uncle, went MIA. I explained this when I was presenting to your class. So our Captain, Murrue, sent an SOS to Orb, asking them to search the area for survivors. About a dozen Orb soldiers were sent out, but instead of finding either Kira or Tolle, they only found a ZAFT soldier, your father."

Lionel nodded and the older woman continued to tell her story, "or, that's what I was always told. But one day, when you were little and I was babysitting you, I stumbled on some old documents which said that when they searched the area, The Orb forces had also found Tolle's body, a bloody mangled mess according to the reports. Cagalli had been there with them when they found it. When I read this, I was so angry that she had never told me. I confronted her about it, and we had a huge fight. I haven't talked to her since." Miriallia closed her eyes for a second, "I suppose we would have made up eventually, but then I was transferred to the PLANTs (where I met my husband) and we lost touch. And I'm still not sure if I'm quite over it yet. Besides, someone has got to tell her you're safe, unless you want her to go crazy that it."

"So, you won't talk to her because of some fight you had a bunch of years ago?" questioned Lionel skeptically. Miriallia nodded.

"That's stupid."

"I know."

* * *

Cagalli ended up driving Mayu home. She figured it was the least she could do. Even though she never mentioned it, she was extremely grateful to the young girl for telling her about Lionel. So grateful in fact, that she had wasted precious working time driving to and back from the quaint little shack Shinn had decided to live in. Lunamaria had been the one to answer the door, but the blond woman had noticed the magenta haired lady's husband glaring at her through the window. Rolling her eyes, Cagalli waved at him only to receive a nasty growl back.

She had left the place with a smile on her face, but now, as she lay awake in bed, her lips were frozen in a frown. Lionel had left her a message at work; he was staying at Milly's place much to her surprise, and not at the Desert Tiger's. Stupid kid, you weren't supposed to call your parents when you ran away from home. Turning onto her side, she faced Yuuna. He had insisted that they share a bed, claiming that that was what normal married couples did. Cagalli couldn't count the number of times she had had to remind him that they weren't normal. When Lionel was young, she used to stay awake until her oaf of a husband was fast asleep and then go sleep with her boy (**not** a la Michael Jackson though) just as an excuse to get away from sleeping in the same bed as _him. _But tonight, or at least, at that particular moment, she was happy to have Yuuna there. Heck, she would've been happy to have anyone there next to her, just as long as there was someone to talk to.

"Yuuna," she said, waking him gently, "I miss Lionel…"

Yuuna grunted. "Go to sleep, Cagalli honey," he mumbled before dozing back off into sleep. Cagalli stared at his almost lifeless body for a second, and then turned away before beginning to cry.

She couldn't take it anymore. She wanted her son back; she couldn't stand not having him around any longer, she couldn't stand being in the dark about weather he still loved her. But she was powerless to do anything about it. Cagalli was the one who had insisted on letting him roam free and experience his adventure; she was the one who had fought to let him do this, so she couldn't take it back now. But she missed him, and so she cried for what seemed like hours. She cried for Lionel and, she wasn't sure when it started, but eventually she found herself crying for Athrun too.

* * *

**Hehe! Writing the bit with Mayu and Cagalli was fun. Anyways, please review!**


	8. Seven

**OK, so I'm sure you're all gawking and wondering what's with the early update. Well, the truth of the matter is this chap is sort of like part 2 of chapter six (though I'm still calling it chapter seven) and packed with all the ideas I wanted to put in the last chapter but couldn't. So, I hope you enjoy it, and to all of you who have been asking about when Athrun will show up, well he's here! I gave him a small role in the chap, so I hope you're happy (enjoy it while you can, because after this, he's going to be gone for another few chapters)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam SEED, but Lionel's MINE (and Mayu too)**

* * *

"So, Lionel," began Miriallia, "I hear you're a very good runner." Lionel looked at her in shock.

"Don't tell me you've been reading those gossip magazines again dear!" exclaimed her husband, Dearka Elsman, a man who could oftentimes be mistaken for his 17-year-old self. The three of them, along with Dearka and Miriallia's 2-year-old daughter Aya in her high chair, were sitting around a square kitchen table eating dinner together the way normal families often did.

"So, what if I did?" retorted the older woman, "it's a free country. I can read whatever I want."

"Yeah, but those magazines are crap!" her husband shot back.

"Well maybe I like reading crap!"

There was something odd about these two, Lionel concluded. They were married and living happily by the looks of it, yet their house was filled with the sounds of their constant bickering. He didn't get how two people who had decided to spend the rest of their lives together could spend all of their time fighting and not hate each other. It didn't make any sense to him. Meanwhile, Aya was happily painting her high chair table with her food.

"You'll have to excuse us," said Dearka, noticing the blond boy's uneasiness a split second before his wife, "Aya may be used to us and our constant debating, but I guess an outsider wouldn't be. We're like this all the time," he confirmed.

"Always have been," chided in Miriallia. Their child laughed as if agreeing with them whole-heartedly.

"Bickering makes married life more interesting," declared the older man like the ex-commitment phoebe he was, earning a tap on the head from the woman he loved.

"Don't you dare start filling his head with your stupid anti-marriage crap!" she said, "God knows he's probably never going to want to get married as it is!"

"Milly, chill," Dearka said like a smooth talker, "just because you _needed _to get married, doesn't mean everyone does…"

Once again Lionel found himself watching the two in a daze, they really did love to fight.

"Uh…hello?" he asked after a second, "I'm an outsider, remember? Could you please try and act normal for me?"

The two adults stared at him in silence for a moment, and then Miriallia giggled and Dearka laughed out load without holding back.

"Hunh, what's so funny?" questioned the teenager frantically, a blush slowly rising in his face.

"You should listen to yourself, kid," advised the older man through his laughter, "you sound exactly like your dad, it's hilarious!"

"Really?" asked Lionel, unsure weather to be flattered or not.

"Yeah, if you had blue hair and green eyes I'd swear you were him!" replied the coordinator enthusiastically, "about twenty years younger, but that's not the point." He laughed a bit more, and suddenly he stopped as his eyes went wide as he had just had an idea, "come with me, kid," he said, getting up from table, "I want to show you something."

"Aren't you going to finish your supper?" demanded Miriallia in a dangerous tone.

"Later honey," said Dearka, using the deadly 'H' word. He looked to Lionel, "you coming kid?" The blonde got up nervously, sneaking a peak at the woman who had taken him in, she nodded subtly and then started to scream.

"_Hon-ey_?" she cried, "what have I told you about that word?"

With a smirk, the coordinator grabbed the blond boy's hand and said: "run!"

* * *

After being interrogated by her father all through dinner about what _exactly_ had gone between her and Cagalli, Mayu had locked herself up in her room and started doing some research. She had learnt that day that the Head Representative of Orb did NOT like it when outsiders meddled their way into her affairs. But she had also learnt that she was curious about Athrun Zala, Mayu had known for a long time now that when she was curious about something, she would do anything to find out.

She opened up the equivalent of google to us, and searched his name.

The first thing she found was the Kiwidepia article she and Lionel had found earlier, which turned out to be quite informative, as expected. From it, she learnt that Athrun Zala was considered a child prodigy as a child, that he had once been a ZAFT redcoat and piloted a number of impressive (red) mobile suits and that he had played a noteworthy role in the battles of Yakin Due and Messiah all over again. There were also a few pieces of information that she didn't know of listed on Kiwidepia. Like how Athrun had defected from the ZAFT military, once during both bloody valentine wars, and how he had served on the Minerva with her parents (who also had small articles on the site). He had been engaged to Lacus Clyne at a time and was now living happily (according to the article) while making a living as PLANT's best lawyer, answering only to the chairman.

Still not satisfied, Mayu returned to the index of web pages on Athrun Zala and clicked on a few others. The first few after the Internet encyclopedia were Kiwidepia wannabes and taught her nothing more than what she already knew. After those came the gossip sites which the young girl found rather amusing what with all the ridiculous rumors being proven true or false. It turned out that Lionel's father was quite the lady's man, much to her surprise.

Mayu continued her research for what seemed like hours, not getting all that far. It was beyond frustrating, but Mayu wasn't going to give up that easily, she had yet to find what she was looking for: Athrun's connection to Cagalli. A few web pages mentioned it, but very briefly, she was nothing more than a friend who had served with him on the Archangel it seemed, or that was how history remembered the two together. Not even the gossip sites had thought of pairing the two up. _Boy are they going to get a shock if those two were to ever get back together_, she thought as she clicked another link.

That was when she found it: The Athrun Zala Online Fanclub.

Fascinated, if somewhat freaked out, Mayu explored the site. It was old and hadn't been updated since, oh, before she was born at least. The young girl began to read through it, amused, when she saw what she had been looking for. Under a list of rumors as to who Athrun Zala would be into aside from Lacus Clyne (it seemed that at the time, they were a –questioned- item) was the phrase: _Athrun Zala and Cagalli Yula Attha, a couple?_ Pressing on it, the young coordinator girl found a poorly written story about Athrun serving as Cagalli's bodyguard under the name Alex Dino way back in CE 73 and that there seemed to be more between them than simply responsibility.

The text had ended like this: _If Athrun-sama really IS dating her, well then it's just a really sad day for all us Athrun fangurls (we rock! lol) who wish that we were his girlfriend and not that princess who has enough as it is!_

_By Lunamaria Hawke_

Mayu screamed.

* * *

Dearka seemed to have mellowed down a bit as he offered Lionel a seat in his and Miriallia's living room while he crawled around the place looking for something.

"Here," he said, putting a photo into the younger man's hands, "have a look, this is me and my buds graduating from the ZAFT way back when." The picture was obviously old and starting to fall apart. On it, there were about 6 or 7 people, smiling proudly, Lionel recognized one of them as a younger Dearka.

"You were in ZAFT?" he asked surprised.

"That what I said, isn't it?" the older man asked back with a smirk, "served during both wars, defecting once," he told the teen proudly, "I was on the same team as your old man for quite some time, actually."

"Really?"

"Yeah," replied Dearka, "he's in the picture, see if you can find him."

Lionel studied each of the young men in the picture and finally decided on the one that looked the most like his mother's type. The boy was about 16 with dark blue hair and deep green eyes; he seemed proud, respectable and just a tiny bit smug. There was a certain air of familiarity to him, as if the blond boy had met him before.

"Yup, that's him," said the older man once the young man showed him his choice, "Athrun Zala, the most boring, know-it-all goody-two-shoes of all history who somehow managed to attract a harem wherever he went," he stated matter-of-factly, making the boy near him chuckle.

"You're kidding," he half said, half asked.

"Nope," replied the ex-ZAFT soldier, shaking his head as if to add truth to his statement.

"And I'm like him?" Lionel wondered, disillusioned and not at all flattered.

"In every way accept for the fanclub," said Dearka with a mischievous look on his face. "Just kidding, kid," he said, giving him a pat on the back.

"I knew that…"

"Whatever," let out the older man, sitting down next to the blonde boy on the couch and taking his picture back. With a reminiscent smile, he pointed to a cocky-looking blonde man, "that's Miguel Aiman, he was a mentor to the rest of us, an amazing pilot too. He was honorably killed in action during the first war." Dearka paused, then showed Lionel a laid-back redhead, "this is Rusty, he was also honorably KIA way back when. He was a real joker, the two of us used to play pranks on the others all the time." The older man didn't pause this time as he redirected his tanned finger to an innocent looking boy, "that was Nicol," he said solemnly, "he was the youngest of us all, I didn't really think much of him. He died honorably trying to protect your father," there was an awkward silence, "he loved the piano."

The blonde boy fiddled with his hands, while Dearka observed his photo, a bittersweet smile playing on his lips.

"Anyways, it's been a while," he said, not really making that much sense. Shaking off his one moment misery, he pointed to another young man on the photo, a boy who looked extremely proud and obnoxious, "do you recognize him?" he asked.

Lionel took a better glance at the picture and realized that yes, the obnoxious boy was familiar to him.

"That's the chairman of the PLANTs!" he exclaimed.

"En-uh, and my best bud, Yzak Joule. You know, I never thought he'd be that good at politics, but he turned out to have a flair for it." Dearka rambled on, "must be his mother's influence, or his wife's, Lacus Clyne is one smart lady," he trailed off, only to point to another young man; the one Lionel needed to hear the most about. "That, as you know, is Athrun Zala, your dad," he said, "who, after defecting from ZAFT twice, went back to the PLANTs and studied _law_. I don't know how he did it. Law is the most boring thing you could ever want to study, and to buckle down and spend four years doing nothing but that after having lived a life like ours…god it must have been torture for Athrun!" He laughed a bit, but stopped once he realized that Lionel didn't what he had to say funny, "but it paid off for him in the end, these days, he works as Yzak's personal lawyer and earns a salary to large to say out load."

"And here's me," concluded Dearka, "the screw up of the Le Creuset team."

"Screw up? Where do you get that from?" asked Lionel, to him Dearka seemed to have done pretty well in life; he had survived two wars, married the girl of his dreams, helped give birth to a lovely daughter and owned his own house. Screw-ups often never did more than survive two wars.

"Miguel, Rusty and Nicol all died honorably, protecting the homeland and killing naturals. Yzak's chairman and you can't do much better than that in life (not to mention he married Lacus Clyne) while Athrun has the best job in his profession _and_ his harem's still around." Dearka laughed bitterly, "meanwhile, I'm down here in Orb, married to a natural, and working at the local high school as a sex-Ed teacher," Lionel laughed uncertainly, "not exactly what you expect from the son of one of the PLANTs councilmen, is it?"

"…No," the blonde boy admitted reluctantly. Dearka took a look at his picture and scratched his head.

"Aww, don't worry too much about me kid," he said smoothly, "I'm pretty happy for a screw-up, happier than a lot of successful people I know, actually." The teenager nodded and let him talk. "So, anyways, what do you think about calling up your old man?"

"What?" demanded Lionel, jumping off the couch, "we can do that?" Up until now, the blond boy had never fully realized that his biological father was alive, or even real, he had seemed like such a distant figure.

"Course we can!" declared Dearka as if nothing on earth or PLANT could stop him, "He and I are friends, I can call him up whenever I want!" And then, almost like a cartoon character, he took a slip of paper out of his pocket. Lionel guessed it was his father's phone number. "Wait a sec, ok?" The older man walked over to the phone and punched in the number. The blond boy stood nervously, frozen in place. Dearka had set the device on speakerphone, so he could hear the other one ringing. After about two and a half rings, someone picked up.

"Zala house, what do you want?" came the angry and load voice of the PLANTs chairman.

"Yzak!" cried Dearka happily, "since when do you pick up calls for Athrun?"

"Since he's gone to the bathroom and his infernal phone won't shut-up!" Yzak snapped, "what are you calling for anyways, Elsman?"

"So I'm just Elsman now? Oh, Yzak, you're cruel," taunted the tanned coordinator; Lionel could almost hear the platinum blond man seething in frustration. "Anyways, when Athrun gets off the pot, could you tell him that it's his blond princess?"

"DEARKA BE NICE!" came Miriallia's sudden and warning voice. Her husband groaned.

"Fine," he muttered, "tell Athrun it's me."

Yzak smirked.

"Athrun!" he called to his lawyer, who had just come out of the bathroom, "it's your blond princess!"

Before anyone had the chance to see it happen, Athrun had traded places with his competitive friend at the receiver.

"Cagalli?" he asked frantically.

"Sorry, Athrun, it's just me," replied Dearka. The blue haired man glared.

"What do you want?" he snapped angrily, "I hope, for your own sake, that you didn't just call to tease me about my love life."

"Nope, why I would do that? Yzak's the one who made the joke!" defended 'Le Creuset team screw up'. "But that's besides the point, I've got someone who'd probably really like to talk to you here with me."

The PLANTs most successful lawyer narrowed his eyes at the monitor, "and just who could that be?" he asked with mock interest.

"Your son," said Dearka.

"What the hell is with you today?" demanded Athrun, "will you quit poking fun at my social life?"

"I'm not kidding," said the sex-Ed teacher in all seriousness, "he's really here." He looked to Lionel, "you wanna talk?" he asked, handing him the receiver. The teenager, who had been watching the scene as if in a trance suddenly snapped back to life as he spoke into the phone.

"Hi…" he said nervously.

The man on the other line's facial features had been tense and angry when he had first seen in, but now his face was relaxed, hopeful and perhaps even a bit joyful.

"Hi," he said.

"Athrun Zala, right?" The teen's question came out a bit too fast, but his father seemed to understand it all the same.

"Yeah," he said warmly, "and you're Lionel Uzumi Attha Serian, aren't you?"

The blonde boy shook his head.

"Nope, it's Lionel Uzumi Attha, just that," he corrected.

Athrun smiled.

* * *

"Mayu," began Lunamaria, "you have to understand," she tried to continue her sentence, but no words came to her. It wasn't easy talking about your fangirl past to your daughter. Especially when you had been planning on keeping it a secret from her forever.

"You do stupid things when you're young," Shinn continued for her.

"Exactly," agreed Luna, thanking her husband with her signature you-are-getting-sex-tonight look, "so it's nothing to worry about."

Mayu, who was still a bit freaked out about what she had read on the net, nodded skeptically.

"So…so you two are ok, right?" she asked after a second, " I mean you guys don't have _issues_, right?"

"None that are threatening to destroy our marriage," Lunamaria reassured her daughter lovingly, "we might have gotten together quick, but we've been together ever since."

At that, Mayu decided that this was enough and that she knew enough about her mother's adolescence to last her a lifetime. She got up to leave.

"Oh, and Mayu?" came Shinn's voice, "don't you dare start thinking that you're another one of Zala's bastards!" he ordered, "Because you're not!"

* * *

Meyrin fiddled with her scrap of paper, rolling it up and unraveling it again, folding it as many times as she could and then unfolding it. She felt stupid doing so, but she couldn't help it; she always fiddled around with whatever she could find when she was nervous.

For something like the 12th time that evening, she unfolded the piece of paper and stared at it. It was the card Kira had given her the other day; the one with his number on. Glancing from it to the phone, Meyrin felt herself blush. _Come on_, she growled inwardly, giving herself an inner pep talk, yo_u can do this_, _if he gave you his number it's because he wants you to call._

Finally, after what seemed like aeons of egging herself on, Meyrin picked up the phone, punched in the number, and waited as it rang. Almost instantly, someone picked up; it was Kira.

"Hello?" he said hopefully. Meyrin stopped breathing, she was ready to hang up and run as far as she could from the phone. But she couldn't do that, not at her age. Schoolgirl crushes weren't her thing anymore.

"Hello, Mr. Kira," she began hesitantly, "it's Meyrin…"

* * *

**Well, nothing much happened there, eh? Milly and Dearka acted like husband and wife, Mayu found some truly scary stuff on the net and Meyrin called Kira, oh and Lionel was quiet as he observed things, as always. Anyways, tell me what you think, peace out!**


End file.
